It's nearly the end of October and already my daily practice is revolving around what I will need to play this holiday season. Yours might be too. The smart harpist knows that this is the time to plan your practice carefully so that you don't have to cram practice time into an already overloaded holiday schedule. If we feel prepared to play going into the holiday rush, it makes everything about the holidays more fun.

So now is the time to plan. We have about six weeks from now until the end of November. In my own planning I usually use our Thanksgiving as my target date to have my music ready. If you're not up to speed on American holidays, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, so date-wise, it's a movable feast, but as it marks the kickoff for our holiday rush, it's a great target date for music readiness.

Today, I want to share what I think is the easiest and most realistic schedule for making sure whatever music you have to play this December will be ready. I start by looking at the three most critical decisions: what "ready" means (and believe me, it's different for each piece, each player and each performance), how much practice time you have and how to divide that time among everything you want to practice and play.  Once you have made those decisions, it's about making a realistic and flexible schedule that allows you to get your music ready without the stress and lets you feel confident that you are ready to play your best.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Arpeggios with E.A.S.E. Course - last chance to get in!
• Join the Community in the Hub through the Harp Mastery® app.
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at podcast@harpmastery.com

Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode?

LINKS NOT WORKING FOR YOU? FInd all the show resources here: https://www.harpmastery.com/blog/Episode-231